Since his early childhood, Oxley has enjoyed painting and some of his first artworks where inspired by rock cover albums & spooky horror movies. As his childhood progressed, he fell in love with animals and the natural world & his painting naturally began to centre on this.
Before he was a teenager, his granddad persuaded him to recreate all the birds from the family’s much loved
Since his early childhood, Oxley has enjoyed painting and some of his first artworks where inspired by rock cover albums & spooky horror movies. As his childhood progressed, he fell in love with animals and the natural world & his painting naturally began to centre on this.
Before he was a teenager, his granddad persuaded him to recreate all the birds from the family’s much loved book: ‘The Illustrated Book Of Birds’ (perhaps Dr. Jiri Felix's or Bruce Campbell's version) & Robert was a little shocked when his relative put them into an art exhibition – perhaps an early taste of the limelight!
At 17 years old he started an advanced art course & would again return to study art at University as a mature student but Robert left both courses, sighting them as too bookish and not advanced enough. After this he would became ‘self-taught,’ as many of the great wildlife artists are, Lancashire born Steven Townsend (search on our website) springs to mind.
Like Townsend, his older paintings (before becoming published by Washington Green fine art publishers) where photo-realistic, with the subject matter focusing on wildlife habitat destruction and poaching; however with the recent growing popularity of surrealist art, Robert’s work took a dramatic turn and he cited Glenn Brown, Robert Crumb and Robert Williams as influences in his new style we see today. Oxley coins William’s work as ‘psychedelic natural history’ – a phrase that also perfectly captures Oxley’s own work!
Robert’s painting process is very mindful, painting with acrylics as his medium, he lets the process itself take over and the competence and skill he has honed over 1000s of hours flow from his brush to the canvas.
Unsurprisingly, he wants his work to appear loose and speedily completed by the viewer, however on closer look every stroke should appear deliberate and well placed. This juxtaposition in his art, of freedom and complication, mirrors is how he sees man’s relationship with wildlife & the natural world.
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